The exploding video resume

I hope that someday we come to find out that Aleksey Varner (née Garber) has a wicked sense of humor. But based on what I have seen, he’s totally serious. Aleksey gets an A+ in cheesy eighties business book metaphors and seems to have mastered the high art of taking himself too seriously. Luckily, we don’t suffer from that here.

Now I would never condone the posting of someone’s resume online without his/her consent (and I think that the person that did it should be punished…don’t ever worry about sending a resume to me, even if it’s this bad), but at the same time, I think the video underscores the importance of humility and a sense of humor if you are going to do an online resume. And also, alleged fraud is wrong too (follow the links, my friends). It’s kind of like opening a restaurant. Most fail so you better be good and you better be different. Taking business advice from a fake-business person, faux professional athlete and a so-called practicing eastern healer? No thank you. I’ll ask our human resources department to get back to you. Oh, I’m in the human resources department? Darn!

Follow the links to the IvyGateBlog and the story unwinds. I’m speechless.

Did you checkout some of the comments people are leaving on youtube? What are some of these people thinking?

" I hate to break it to all of you, but he is just the sort of person who becomes wildly successful. He’s so focused and determined. You think this is insufferable – wait 3-5 years until he has his own reality show or he appears on "The Bachelor." I’m guessing he’s here to stay and our success-worshipping culture is going to pay a lot of attention to him!"

"I agree with travelmom37 . In a few years, Alek is probably going to be a lot more successful than any of the people laughing at his video resume. It really wasn’t his fault he got a bad director to do this! You go Aleksey!"

"sorry to say it but this guy is going to make it big time, and he’s gonna have the last laugh"

I hope these individuals were just joking around!! If not, expect to get quite a few 11-page false resumés with videos attached!

You’re right most video resumes today are cheesey, but make no mistake, they are the wave of the future. Posting resumes online 15 years ago was seen as a pretty bad idea, but look the industry today. Video is coming and when the right people get this in the right format it will rock the recruiting industry.

When it comes to video less is more but in a job market that is increasingly competitve getting an interview is often harder than landing the job. As a professional recruiter I would rather see 10 to 15 seconds of video from candidates than wade through 100s or 1000s of resumes and 10s or 100s of interviews before I find an individual who has what it takes. To many people flat-out lie on their resumes and video makes it much harder to lie.

Erich- I bet they are people that have done something stupid and felt victimized by the reaction and they somehow, because of their own bad judgement, associate more with that Aleksey guy than all the people pointing out his wrong-doing. I mean, we all do stupid things from time to time, but that guy has really exceeded expectations!

Some people really like the underdog (I do in sports, but in the business world, when it involves dishonesty like that, not so much) mostly because it reflects how they see themselves. Don’t ask me what psych class I learned that in. I didn’t take a psych class, but it’s just something that I’ve come to believe (mostly through self-assessment).

Jeremy-I totally disagree but to each his own. I can’t keyword search video resumes, I find them pretty self-indulgent and when you get hundreds of resumes for a job posting, who has time to look at videos. I think that Aleksey has proven that some people find it totally comfortable to lie on a video resume. I’m not looking to fill positions with people that perform well on video, I’m looking to fill positions with people that perform well in the job. Either way, it requires an interview. Plus video resumes make it more difficult, not less, to narrow the funnel of candidates. Video resumes are flash and I’m looking for substance. A good one may get the attention of someone (and I’ve seen one good vieo resume ever…that French speaking cartoon one….you know the one) due to it being clever but otherwise I’m not interested in them and I’ve got nowhere to store them and no time to watch all of them.

I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble because I am sure they are fun to make, but it’s not replacing the resume any time soon because recruiters can scan a resume quickly, get to the salient points, and determine interest. How do you scan a video quickly?

Posting resumes online in 1991 was seen as a bad idea? Who was online in 1991? How many people even knew it was an option? If it was a bad idea it was because there was virtually no professional online usage. My staffing application was on a mainframe through 1996 and we were using paper files and faxing resumes. Please, apples and oranges.

Just because the technology is available for something doesn’t automatically make it a good idea.

There were plenty of resumes and job postings online in 1991 on USENET newsgroups though those were, of course, mostly computing-related jobs and job seekers. It isn’t like today where people from all walks of life are posting job openings and resumes online.

I’m not sure a the linear nature of the video resume makes sense from a industry or workflow standpoint. I can’t see anyone screening video resumes for hours. But heather, I think you missed the point, that video is not going to replace text based resumes but enhance them. I’m down to my 3 final candidates and I shoot them over to the hiring manager, she like candidate 1, watches her video, which shows she is quick, intelligent and well groomed, things you can’t hide behind paper, the video is 30 seconds long… she has found her #1. Candidate is ready for interview, bang boom she is hired…

There are still a myriad of issues with videos as part of the screening process; where to store them. what happens if 2 out of 3 candidates don’t have access to video? Do you hire the third? It’s all fun and games until someone is sued for discrimination basedon what they viewed on a candidate’s video. This isn’t American Idol.

And anyone who selects their one, "final" interview candidate without speaking to them on the phone has problems with their staffing process that videos can’t solve.

Look, I can see where "web 2.0" companies want to find ways to push what they feel are exciting new technologies into the staffing process. The problem is they are trying to fill the wrong hole. That is my opinion and I’m entitled to it.

To the person that posted their "advertisement" for their video resume service, you have got to be kidding me. I deleted it. This is my blog, not a place for you to post advertisements. And video resumes are many things, but the fact that you refer to them as "efficient" is making me giggle. That they are not!

My apologies if you thought my previous comments were an advertisement. I was simply trying to add to the “discussion” that is what Blogs are all about is it not?

Video resumes are very effective and efficient, and that’s not only my opinion! There are many major businesses and corporations using video resumes as a precursor to the hiring process. That is the reality of it.

The other reality of it is that there are many people with a fear of some kind and negative opinions towards video resumes. It can go either way.

I did misunderstand the discussion part of this blog, it appears to be only for negative opinions! so I will stop adding to the discussion now!

Again, my apologies for that so called advertisement, it wasn’t intended to be.

It is, but when your comment came off like an advertisement, not anything that added to the disuccussion, plus your name linked to a video resume company, I have a problem with it. Don’t you consider that a conflict of interest? Or feel a little icky? I would. You do work for a video resume company, right?

And I don’t know any "major" companies using video resumes. But if you want to "add to the discussion", you can educate us and tell us who they are. I’d love to know about it.